Hajo Riese is responding to the following questions:

Could you start by telling us something about your academic background – where you studied, who your teachers were, and the course your career took?

As an active researcher, you have seen how economic research in Germany has changed since the early 1970s. When you began your academic career, IS/LM Keynesianism was still the framework for economic debate, but debate in Germany is now dominated by supply-side economics and neoclassical economic models. What is your view of the shift? And how do you explain it?

Central to current economic debate in Germany is a call for labour market deregulation and for pay cuts or, at the very least, for very modest pay rises. What is your view of such calls? And in particular how do you rate the importance of sectoral collective agreements?

There are signs of a slight recovery, but this is essentially Germany's sixth consecutive year of economic stagnation. What do you think are the underlying causes?

Why has Germany not managed so far to boost growth by increasing turnover in the service sector and so match the growth rates achieved in comparable industrial economies?

Since 1999, the European Central Bank has been calling the shots as far as European monetary policy is concerned. We have three questions related to that. First, do you see any differences between the monetary policy latitude that the German Bundesbank has as compared with that of the ECB? Second, where would you put the euro in the currency hierarchy? And finally, what is your view of the rather surprising appointment of Jürgen Stark as the ECB’s Chief Economist?

What are the prospects for a common currency zone for the weaker countries? More specifically, do you think it makes sense for further eastern European countries to join the single currency, such as Poland and Hungary? And what would be the risks of doing so?

You can still claim to be one of the very few German-speaking economists to have created something like your own school of economics.

In your own theoretical work, you have consistently stressed the importance of balanced argument, something that fundamentally sets you apart from other Keynesian schools, for example, fundamentalist Keynesianism. Could you say a bit more about that?